Dear reader, We held the 3rd edition of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards on the 11th of June this year and I am pleased to present this year’s Awards handbook that brings you a comprehensive coverage of these awards. The Awards ceremony was a memorable event that acknowledged the spectacular achievements of the value IT channel. The Awards process as usual had the nominations phase that was open to all companies across relevant listed categories. As has been an established practice, we made some changes and added a few categories to help the Awards stay most relevant. We were quite satisfied with the number of nominations that came in and most were included in the online survey after due diligence in terms of relevance of the nominations sought for each category. The online survey was held over 2 weeks and saw very active polling within the first few days itself. That shows the growing stature of these recognitions in the industry. Category winners were those with maximum votes polled in their favor. These wins are well deserved and my heartiest congratulations to all of them. I am hopeful they will continue to steer the industry forward on the growth path. I am also thankful to the sponsors of the Awards evening. Wish you all a good read.
Contents Awards overview - 4
................................................................................ NetApp builds the converged future - 8
................................................................................ D-LINK surging ahead - 10
................................................................................ Schneider Electric drives power efficiency - 14
................................................................................ FVC pioneering value - 18
................................................................................ StorIT consolidate their firm foothold in the storage market - 22
................................................................................ Spire is striking success with a specialist focus - 26
................................................................................ STME is thriving with a storage focus - 28
................................................................................ Finesse, the Application experts - 30
................................................................................ EliteVAD on an ambitious trajectory - 32
................................................................................ F1 Infotech nurtures vertical success - 35
................................................................................ Vivek Sharma Founder & CEO JNS Media International
Promise builds on an innovation focus - 36
Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Publisher: Vivek Sharma Business Development Manager: Mallika Rego Managing Editor: R. Narayan Sales Manager: Christopher David Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh Published by: JNS Media International MFZE
P.O. Box: 121075, Montana Building 404, Zabeel Road, Near GPO, Karama, Dubai-UAE Tel: 04-3705022 Fax: 04-3706639 Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this handbook they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.
Integrator Awards 2015 Ceremony
The 3rd Integrator Awards honours the industry’s best The 3rd edition of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards ceremony held on the 11th of June 2015 at the Oberoi in Dubai applauded outstanding performances of the year in the value-add segment of the ICT channel. These Awards launched in 2013 are the only awards dedicated to the value segment of ICT channel in the MEA region and are among the initiatives from The Integrator print title, now in its fourth year of print and the unrivalled leader in its space. The Integrator Awards come under the broader banner of the ICT Champion Awards initiative that include the highly popular VAR COC (Choice of Channel Awards) that have
concluded 9 editions to date as well as the VAR Arabia Awards and the East Africa Integrator Awards. The organizer of these Awards is JNS Media International MFZE, a publisher of channel focused print and digital publications. These include VAR Magazine, The Integrator, www.varonline. com as well as East Africa Integrator and VAR Arabia, the latter two being digital publications. The 2015 Integrator ICT Champion winners were chosen through a process that included accepting nominations in the first phase and an online survey executed viawww.varonline. com in the second and concluding phase. A majority of leading companies
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in the region’s industry participated by sending across their entries for different categories. These nominees were entered into the survey which was communicated widely to the region’s SI (System Integrator) channel so that they could vote for their preferred choices. The online survey ran for close to two weeks and saw over 100% increase in voting compared to last year’s voting. The massive voting in this year’s survey is a vindication of the prestige these awards carry as industry recognitions for the region. Those who polled maximum votes in each category were declared winners at the awards ceremony.
The 2015 Integrator Awards Winners
There were also a few select Editor’s choice awards categories which allowed for recognition of special achievements of Brands and companies. These recognitions were based on information that the editorial team has been privy to through interactions with those companies. The year 2015 also heralds the 10th year of operations for the company which has now consolidated its various Media and Marketing services operations under the holding company JNS Media International MFZE from its previous name of VAR MEA Magazine. VAR Marketing Management is an entity that is the marketing services arm for the group and ICE Media Solutions is the third entity of this group based out of India and focused on support services for the group’s clients.
Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year Virtualisation Vendor of the Year Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year SMB Storage Vendor of the Year Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year SMB Networking Vendor of the Year Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year Unified Communications Vendor of the Year Video Conferencing Vendor of the Year Data Management & Analytics Vendor of the Year Disaster Recovery and Backup Vendor of the Year Endpoint Security Software vendor of the year Network Security Appliance Vendor of the Year IP Video Surveillance Solutions Vendor of the Year Application Delivery Solutions Vendor of the Year Mobility Management Solutions Vendor of the Year Power Solutions Vendor of the Year DCIM Solutions Vendor of the Year Print Management Solutions Vendor of the Year Enterprise Networking VAD of the Year Enterprise Security VAD of the Year Enterprise Storage VAD of the Year Mobility Solutions VAD of the Year Unified Communications VAD of the Year Information Security Specialist VAD of the Year Managed Services Provider of the Year Networking Integrator of the Year Storage Integrator of the Year Telecom Integrator of the Year Security Integrator of the Year Software Solutions Integrator of the Year Emerging Integrator of the Year Emerging VAD of the Year Visionary Integrator of the Year Visionary VAD of the Year Fast Growing SMB Brand of the Year Innovative IP Video Surveillance Vendor of the Year Enterprise After Sales Vendor of the Year KVM solutions VAD of the Year
Microsoft Gulf FZ - LLC VMware FZ-LLC NetApp Western Digital Dell FZ-LLC D-Link EA Cisco Systems International Avaya Polycom SAP MENA LLC Commvault Kaspersky Lab ME Fortinet Middle East Milestone Systems ME Riverbed Technology FZ LLC Sophos Schneider Electric FZE Emerson FZE XeroxMiddle East FVC Scope Middle East StorIT Distribution FZCO Oxygen Middle East Granteq Distribution Spire Solutions Dimension Data Gulf Business Machines STME Prologix L.L.C eSolutions Netcure Finesse Think Software Services FZ LLC EliteVAD F1 Infotech FZE Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company Linksys from Belkin PROMISE Technology EMEA Barracuda Networks Wave Tech Computers L.L.C
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Integrator Awards 2015
Cloud Computing Vendor of the year
A growing number of enterprises are now harnessing the benefits of cloud services to extend their business capabilities and competitive edge. Microsoft is strategically penetrating the cloud computing market with its different products and has emerged as the winner of this category.
SMB Storage Vendor of the Year
WD, the winner of the category is a vendor who has been a storage manufacturing powerhouse and is gaining strong traction in the NAS market with new products and enhanced features. It is making headway in the video surveillance market with purpose built storage drives. 6 | Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook
Virtualisation vendor of the Year
Virtualisation is a maturing market with more companies having virtualized less critical services. The momentum is now stretching towards network virtualization The winner of this category, VMware, is almost synonymous with the domain and continues to grow its market share.
Enterprise Storage Vendor of The year
The winner of this category, Dell is reportedly showing impressive YoY growth in enterprise storage market. The company’s focus on total storage — attached and server-based — is helping it grow its market share in enterprise storage.
SMB Networking Vendor of the Year | D-LINK
Surging ahead D-link with range of solutions that covers networking equipment from entry-level to high-end networking equipment emerged the winner of the category SMB Networking Vendor of the Year.Sakeer Hussain, Sales and Marketing Director at D-Link speaks about the company’s strengths in the SMB space
Discuss D-Link’s consolidation in the networking segment? D-Link as a brand stands for a wide array of networking equipment catering to nearly every requirement, starting from Structured Cabling Solutions to high-end switching devices, for lowand high-end requirements. We are offering full-fledged networking solutions from entry-level and high-end solutions. Working mainly with System Integrators in the Enterprise segment, we are very keen on supporting them with the needed trainings, rebates, promotions, incentives, and marketing activities etc. Especially helpful to them has been the fact that they can get the entire solution out of one hand. Over the year we have
seen a strong increase in the demand from the GCC countries, but also from African countries. As true end-to-end networking provider offering the latest technologies, at D-Link we continuously work to give channel partners the possibility to work with niche products. Is the company looking to increase focus on the SMB segment? Does the company have solutions for the enterprise segment? We offer a wide range of business solutions catering to the SMB segment, but also to enterprises. D-Link has been very well-known for consumer products, but in the recent years has also proven to be a great contender for enterprise solutions such as 40G
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Connectivity, offering data center solutions. D-Link’s solutions are affordable and provide an unmatched network experience for everyone and due to our spirit as a forerunner in networking technology, D-Link has been one of the first vendors who introduced the 11 AC series of products to the business segment with various offerings. Our business portfolio consists of high-quality products offered at affordable prices, backed by a 5-year performance warranty and a technical support team alleviating any issues related to the installation. IT Managers of large enterprises have been approaching D-Link for our value-engineered solutions, providing them with a better ROI.
Integrator Awards 2015
Due to the above facts, D-Link won many projects against reputed Switching vendors and have been able to implement large-scope projects. Has the surveillance segment been a fast growing segment for D-link? With Security having become a global priority, D-Link has expanded its offering on the surveillance range with the introduction of new IP camera models including covert and battery-operated cameras covering 4Kx2K, panoramic view, 60 frames
per second etc. We will also be introducing a new family of “value cameras� to cater to a very price-sensitive market offering high-value products at affordable prices. D-Link surveillance is also backed with the longest warranty period in comparison with our competition. In emerging markets we have observed an increasing need for security. Hence D-Link has been able to achieve a 32% growth for IP surveillance solutions in 2014. As manufacturer from a switching background, D-Link is capable of supporting our
Enterprise Networking vendor of the year
Enterprise networking is passing through a transitional phase with SDN now gaining ground. Cisco, the winner of the category continues to dominate the enterprise switching and routing space, has a strong SDN proposition and is also positioned to take the lead in IoT.
surveillance partners with trainings to better manage and handle video traffic/ storage with their L2/L3 switches/NAS/SAN solutions. Which have been the product lines where you have steadily enhanced your focus over the year? The demand for speed and coverage has made D-Link launch many more 11AC solutions in 2015. In the enterprise sector, we have been very successful with enterprise solutions such as 40G Connectivity, offering data center solutions.
Unified Communications Vendor the Year
Avaya, the winner of this category has been as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications for Enterprises for six consecutive years and is now also positioned in the first Gartner quadrant for unified communications for midsize businesses Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook | 9
Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year | NetApp
Please elaborate on the transition trends globally towards converged infrastructure? Analysts like IDC & Gartner estimate that a large proportionof the storage market is rapidly moving towards a converged stack globally, as customers want a solution where multiple vendors come together to design a solution that fits their application requirements. Customers prefer converged infrastructure because it simplifies the sourcing and management of IT equipment such as servers, storage, and networking and reduces deployment time. Please discuss NetApp’s approach towards converged infrastructure and solutions NetApp is a leading vendor in the converged infrastructure space. We have alliances with leading brands in the market including Fujitsu, Microsoft, VMware, APC, and Eaton. Also, our partnership with Cisco is nearing its fifth anniversary. We partner with Cisco for our widely adopted FlexPod solutions which incorporate NetApp storage expertise with Cisco servers and networking platforms. One of our joint offerings, vShape is a converged infrastructure that integrates
NetApp emerged the winner of the category Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year. Its FlexPod is a flexible, integrated infrastructure platform designed to work in many different environments that is highly scalable, providing transparent growth from entry to enterprise level. Graham Porter, Channel Manager MENA & Pakistan discusses the industry trends and the company’s focus
Building the converged future the expertise and technologies of leading manufacturers including x86 servers from Fujitsu, storage systems from NetApp and switches from Brocade. We certify our converged stack solutions for applications from leading application vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. We also offer a converged stack solution for specific industries using Video, High performance computing and VDI environments. Share your regional achievements so far in terms of deployments? Our converged infrastructure offerings are widely deployed
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in the Middle East region across different markets. Locally, we have a number of customers who have moved to a converged stack with NetApp in partnership with both Cisco and Fujitsu, in various industries. One example is that of Zajil Telecom in Kuwait. In order to enhance and expand the services offered, the telco wanted to build a new data centre infrastructure which reduced deployment time, project risk, and the cost of IT. This was achieved with implementing the FlexPod solutions. Additionally, BankIslami, in Pakistan, was facing the
challenge of consolidating and centralizing more than 200 branches. The problem was resolved by deploying FlexPod at both their main site as well as their disaster recovery facility. How are you driving awareness with integrators of the region? We have run a number of sessions with our distributors NetApp - driving businesses forward with unique data solutions At NetApp, the focus is on providing the most flexible and easy-to-use solution for customers and creating a platform that can seamlessly manage data regardless of whether on premises or in the cloud. The NetApp data fabric offers a cohesive solution that increases efficiency, improves IT responsiveness, and accelerates innovation through the ability to control, integrate, and consistently manage data across the hybrid cloud. Cloud Storage – A new era By providing a data fabric that spans a private cloud, service providers, and hyperscale cloud providers, NetApp allows organizations to embrace the cloud on their
and partners in the region, along with Cisco, where we have explained the benefits of converged stack for both customers and partners. We also have specific programs in place to help partners become certified for FlexPod, so that they can sell, implement and support FlexPod and we offer them incentives to encourage them to make the investment in FlexPod certification. own terms by integrating enterprise-class data management and control with the flexibility, speed, and economics of the public cloud. Dynamic Data Portability on a Universal Platform NetApp simplifies data management and provides consistent data services across clouds with clustered Data ONTAP, delivering secure multi-tenancy, proven storage efficiency, seamless scalability, and non-disruptive operations. NetApp further extends the ubiquity of Data ONTAP, the world’s #1 branded storage OS, by enabling it to run on a broad range of third-party hardware. Flash – A high performance, cost effective solution
NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) addresses enterprise storage requirements with high performance, combined with superior flexibility and bestin-class data management. All Flash FAS speeds up the business without compromising on efficiency, reliability, or the flexibility of IT operations. Collaborative Approach for delivery unmatched solutions NetApp continues to focus on the benefit of its partners and the opportunities for their mutual customers. NetApp’s Cloud Service Provider Program was the first of its kind to align value-added resellers (VARs) and service providers (SPs), showing true commitment to partners’ business needs.
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Integrator Awards 2015
Video Conferencing vendor of the Year
Polycom, the winner of the category, places user experiences at the center of its product and solutions development to create voice, video and content collaboration solutions that fit the way teams work.
Disaster Recovery & Backup Vendor of the Year
CommVault, the winner of this category is a leader in the development of Singular Information Management solutions for high-performance data protection, universal availability and simplified management of data on complex storage networks 12 | Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook
Data Management & Analytics Vendor of the Year
SAP, the winner of this category offers software solutions which help realize the potential of analytics, Big Data, the business network, and Internet of Things to innovate new business models, deliver unique customer experiences, and run world-class business processes.
Endpoint Security Software Vendor of the Year
Kaspersky Lab, the winner of the category is a company whose solutions combine the ease of centralized deployment, management and control over all devices connected to the corporate network with reliable protection against cyberthreats.
Power Solutions Vendor of the Year | Schneider Electric
Please elaborate on Schneider Electric’s focus on power and cooling solutions for datacenters? Datacentres are integral to IT businesses, and as demand for storage and operation continues to expand, Schneider Electric aims to provide the right solutions to manage the power and cooling of critical business infrastructure for small medium and large Datacentres. Schneider Electric’s critical power and cooling solutions ensure protection against many of the primary causes of data loss, hardware damage and downtime, and include comprehensive solutions designed for both home and corporate environments, ensuring improved manageability, availability and performance, as well as providing global, end-to-end AC and DC based backup power products and services. Our portfolio includes a vast range including UPS systems, rack and cooling solutions, cabling and connectivity products, as well as KVM, PDU and Console Servers and network management software. Our solutions enable power and cooling capacity up to 60% faster than traditional
The rising adoption of energy efficient power technologies in the growing datacenter market will see the power market growing considerably. Schneider Electric, the winner of this category offers one of the largest portfolios of products and solutions for small, medium and large data center environments. Ziad Youssef, VP IT Business- UAE and Gulf countries, Schneider Electric discusses details
Driving power efficiency approaches, 20% reduction in capital costs and 30% reduction in energy costs as well as improved reliability by eliminating field-based work Elaborate on data management software that Schneider provides? Using DCIM software, organizations can begin to automate repetitive but potentially error-prone administrative tasks such as data migrations; storage reclamation and monitoring; reporting on server; and storage utilization, which are capabilities that advanced DCIM software packages offer. Schneider
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Electric’s StruxureWare for Data Centres software is a holistic DCIM software suite managing all aspects of the data center, which leverages and optimizes the existing infrastructure, providing robust, scalable and integrated software solutions. In order to increase visibility of a datacentre’s power, cooling and security needs and keep enterprise owners updated, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Datacentres bring the three components into ‘a single pane of glass’ or a single user interface, providing information right from the service entrance to the
Vess A2210 32 - 64 cameras
Vess A2600 64 - 128 cameras
The Vess A-Class NVR storage appliance and Vess external storage solutions are high-performance solutions speciďŹ cally designed for the challenges customers face in surveillance environments that can scale to meet long term data retention requirements.
www.promise.com
Integrator Awards 2015
IT floor. This makes data centre management more reliable and energy efficient, and helps optimize power utilization effectiveness (PUE) from rack to row, and from room and building. Which have been your key verticals of focus? Over the past few years, Schneider Electric has assisted both private and public enterprises in setting up their IT systems to be on par with the global movement towards digitized data. The major verticals Schneider Electric works with include
utilities, oil and gas operators, construction, healthcare and mobility. Elaborate on your channel strategy? Schneider Electric’s Channel Partner Program provides partners and resellers with access to a variety of IT and non-IT solutions and services, along with some benefits. Based on what best fits their business and offerings, partners will fall into one of the categories which include registered, select and premier partners or elite partners. With access to multiple
certifications, training and industry know-how and trends, channel partners can grow their own business, while enabling Schneider Electric to reach out to its target customer base in key markets.
Network Security Appliance Vendor of the Year
IP Video Surveillance Vendor of the Year
Fortinet, the winner of this category offers a portfolio of products that range from wired/wireless networks and messaging systems to web applications, databases and much more.
Milestone Systems, a vendor that is the leading open platform company in IP video management software (VMS) and now owned by Canon emerged as winner of the category among the shortlist of nominees included in the survey.
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Enterprise Networking VAD of the Year | FVC
Is there an emphasis at FVC to broaden your networking portfolio/focus? We have always been a proponent of emerging technologies. As technology continues to evolve, and our resources widened, we decided to focus our business into two very clear segments. Our new IT Infrastructure & Security (ITIS) division covers network & content security, hyper-convergence & VDI, networking & application performance management, storage and datacentre solutions, amongst others. This includes not just vendors but also the accompanying resources including trained service engineers, training and certification centres, marketing resources, as well as investment in creating proof of concept centres within our Executive Briefing Centres. Discuss new vendor additions from 2014 onwards? In the past year, we have addedPivot3 for hyperconverged infrastructure, Email Archiving solution from Jatheon, Privilege Access Management solution from Beyond Trust, Networking and Security solutions from Extreme Networks, Application and Network Performance Management, Wireless security, Wireless
Pioneering value FVC emerged as the winner of the category Enterprise Networking VAD of the Year and is a pioneer of bringing innovative new technologies to complement its expanding portfolio. Harsh Thakkar, GM for IT Infrastructure & Security at FVC discusses the new directrions survey solutions etc from Fluke networks, IAM solutions from Propentus as well as Mobile User Security solutions from IronKey. We have also addedIBM Security’s XGS Network Intrusion Prevention System appliances to the infrastructure segment and the IBM QRadar Security Intelligence Platform to our security solutions portfolio. Comment on the success you have achieved in take these solutions to market through your partners? Which have been key verticals of growth and also elaborate on investments in enabling partners? In the past 12 months, this
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focus on creating solutions has given FVC a healthy 20 percent growth in revenue. This has been the result of an increased partner network where more than 100 new partners were pre-qualified and registered in their partner program that included tailor made technical training and enablement courses. This channel expansion was supported by the expansion and the creation of a dedicated training centre in the new regional FVC headquarters in Dubai and the addition of new support engineers to the FVC team; an increase in the level of technical certification to provide the
Integrator Awards 2015
right level of certification training to partners as well as on-site technical support for customers. FVC also invested in the centralised core support team in terms of better logistics support for the regional offices and partners across the Middle East and Africa region We cannot distinguish any key vertical for our growth per se but we do see a demand from the oil & gas, healthcare, government and education sectors, key areas across the MENA region. Is demand for networking
solutions in region stable and growing or has there been any visible slowdown? We have not really seen any slowdown. We see continued investment in technological infrastructure across the board as governments continue to invest in better resources to building “smarter� cities. Do you see SDN gaining traction- discuss SDN solutions you bring to market? SDN (and SDS - software defined storage)continues to change the business model for technology providers
Applications Delivery Solutions Vendor of the Year
Riverbed, the winner of this category has undergone a transformation from a monoproduct company to offering a broader Application Performance Platform. It has made enhancements to its solution portfolio as well as the new programs and initiatives have helped it grow. 20 | Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook
and their channel. As SDN becomes increasingly pervasive and dismantles vertically integrated network solutions from legacy vendors, networking hardware (much like computers and storage resources) will evolve into a commodity that is readily available from white-label vendors, and network appliances will slowly be phased out by their Network functions Virtualization (NFV) replacements. We work with a couple of vendors: Cyan Networks and Pivot3 in the SDS and HCI segment.
Mobility Management Solutions Vendor of the Year
Sophos, the winner of this category is a company that was recently named as an EMM leader by Forrester. The company continues to bring enterprise level features to the small and medium business that does not typically have the resources to manage a comprehensive BYOD strategy.
Data Center Projects: Growth Model
> Executive summary
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Enterprise Storage VAD of the Year | StorIT Distribution
Discuss major vendors you partners with for different storage solutions? StorIT provides full-spectrum of solutions in Data Storage, Data Protection, Data Management, High Performance Computing and Big Data Analytics from vendor-partners such as EMC, Quantum, SAS, QLogic, Mellanox, Huawei, Quanta, Unitrends, ATTO, Aptare, Moonwalk, Supermicro and Cumulus Networks to customers in the SMB, SME and large Enterprise domains. Discuss software defined storage trends and solutions you have around this? In recent years, Enterprises have been facing an explosion of data, which is creating tremendous data storage challenges. To keep up with this demand, companies are looking for simple and less expensive storage solutions. Hence Software-defined storage (SDS) comes into play where it delivers automated, policy-driven, applicationaware storage solutions. SDS is an approach to data storage in which a the intelligent software program that controls storage-related tasks is decoupled from the physical storage hardware to enable better performance and efficiency levels. SDS is also often referred to as
StorIT Distribution, the winner of the Enterprise Storage VAD of the Yearcategory is a company that provides a full-spectrum of storage solutions. Kartik Shankar, Senior Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution discusses the company’s approach to the storage needs of the industry
Consolidating in the storage market storage virtualization but they have a key difference where SDS separates the storage capabilities and services from the hardware while virtualized storage decouples capacity. The race towards software defined storage is at its peak. The key benefits of software-defined storage over traditional storage are increased flexibility, automated management and cost efficiency. Converged infrastructure becomes the most compelling building block of data center infrastructure. Our vendors have also geared up for the same and software defined storage is the next major thing we can
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expect in storage technology in the near future. What are the solutions you have on offer to help customer meet their expectations of storage virtualisation? As seen in the past few years virtualization is gaining momentum and storage virtual machines are geared up to provide application agility. Future of the storage is software-led and that too open system based. Many existing vendors will build building blocks and frameworks around it thus exploiting the open source better than others by introducing feature rich
Leading edge global technology. Established regional partners. EfďŹ cient local execution.
Global Networking Strategies. Regional Implementation. FVC is the leading Value Added Distributor for renowned IT vendors across the Middle East and Africa. We bring you innovative solutions in UniďŹ ed Collaboration and Convergence, IT Infrastructure and Security. We also deliver a range of professional services including Logistics, Implementation and Training Services; enabling us to meet the real-time infrastructure needs of your business enterprise.
IT Infrastructure and Security Distributing Innovative Technologies, Region-wide
Our IT Infrastructure and Security Vendors
Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 4294900 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Tel: +966 11 2813540 | Cairo, Egypt. Tel: +20 2 26435280 Casablanca, Morocco. Tel: +212 522 787154 | Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254 20 3673 208 | Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: +234 1 4623411 Enquiries: info@fvc.com | www.fvc.com
Integrator Awards 2015
options for their customers. Platforms will standardize over a software layer and all hardware should see a variant or two of the software communicating to each other. Have you further added any new vendor partnerships? It is always a continuous process in our industry to identify, evaluate and add emerging technology solution which gives competitive edge to our portfolio. Our recent partnership with Unitrends, a leading vendor in all-in-one Data Protection, is to offer a simplified and effective
backup, archiving, instant recovery and disaster recovery solutions primarily to the small and medium enterprise segment. We are also evaluating some
DCIM Solutions Vendor of the Year
Emerson Network Power is the winner of this category and offers a DCIM platform that is completely scalable and modular and allows organizations to begin their DCIM journeys at any stage appropriate for their business and scale up as necessary.
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of the leading vendors in business continuity management/assurance through disaster recovery automation and process orchestration.
Print Management Solutions Vendor of the Year
Xerox, the winner of this category, has been a pioneer and leader in Managed Print Services over the years. The company has recently launched a Next Generation strategy that is meant to enable customers gain control of their document processes through a three-step approach.
Integrator Awards 2015
Mobility Solutions VAD of the Year
In the BYOD era, there is a strong need for offering solutions that can help enterprise Businesses enable collaboration as well secure their work environments. Oxygen, the winner is a company that has a comprehensive focus on offering Secure Mobility Solutions.
Managed Services Provider of the Year
Dimension Data, the winner in this category is a global company that offers an extensive managed services portfolio which includes several globally standardised managed services products in specific technology domains.
Unified Communications VAD of the Year
Granteq, the winner of the Unified Communications VAD of the Year category is a company that offers a large number of technologies to provide high definition and high quality communication hardware and services to allow quality collaboration.
Networking Integrator of the Year
GBM who emerged as the winner of this category recently celebrated 25 years of excellence as a leading provider of customized IT solutions in the region. The company has ties with leading technology players and is investing in a talented, skilled workforce. Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook | 25
Information Security Specialist VAD of the Year | Spire Solutions
While Spire is a security focused VAD, you have specialized in information security. Please elaborate if this continues to be the defining approach for the company? Spire Solutions was founded for the purpose of providing Information Security solutions and advisory services to organizations operating across extensive industry sectors. The company is truly a client focused company that has earned a reputation for both its technical excellence as well as its extraordinary client service. Our primary focus revolves around introducing groundbreaking technologies that demonstrate value to clients’ overall business success and more importantly, provide a secure and confident environment to do so- in a way that optimizes the use of existing investments and available resources. What are the strengths that as a company Spire offers a specialist VAD in the information security domain? As a value added distributor, Spire Solutions has been able to utilize its in depth technical understanding of cyber threats, and the risks associated with them, along
Spire Solutions is the winner for the second time in a row of the category Information Security Specialist VAD of the Year. It is a specialist VAD in the Information security software solutions space. Sanjeev Walia, Director, Spire Solutions discusses key opportunities that the distributor has focused on
Striking success with a specialist focus with the various solutions we offer, to connect with clients’ objectives and deliver a sustainable approach to information security. We take pride in being considered our clients’ trusted advisors while also building a reputation as the go-to Company for businesses seeking a robust, ethical and committed representation in the MENA region. Our strength as a company is that we are fanatical about providing value to all our stakeholders – Customers, Technology Partners, Channel Partners as well as the Employees. This has enabled trusted relationships with all
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stakeholders. What are the changing approaches to information security? Security breaches are on the rise, and it is no surprise to find that as the number of information security incidents continues to mount, so do financial losses. More and more, businesses should consider implementing a risk-based approach to security that prioritizes their most valuable assets and proactively addresses their most relevant threats. Organizations are now forced to consider risk and security together, taking a more strategic
look into their enterprise. This includes placing more formal approaches for assessing, planning, building and executing effective cybersecurity programs. The argument now is about building, maturing and enhancing cybersecurity programs, with a particular focus on the full lifecycle, including risk management, governance, security operations and, of course, compliance. This holistic approach means that organizations are now looking at each of these components individually, as well as part of an overall strategy. Hence, there is a lot of investment being made by organizations in technologies that provide solutions for addressing the loopholes. This means that more information is now available to the Infosec teams to be able to take action However, the downside of this is the information overload. We have seen that most of the Security options have a very high number of opened cases/ alerts that take a long time to resolve. This leads to a large window of exposure that can result in losing valuable organization’s Data. Considering that the Infosec teams are not working with the number of resources thy want and indeed need, it
is only natural that they are overburdened. The solution lies in orchestrating the Incident Response process rather than spending time on the manual, mundane and repetitive chores. The result can be spectacular. Some of the organizations have been able to see reduction in the response times from 3 days to 1.5 Minutes. So we see this area to be really growing fast. What is the relevance of security orchestration as a solution? In simple terms, security orchestration is intelligent network change automation. It goes beyond simple task automation by fully understanding the network through simulation and analytics. It also gives security people an extra level of governance and
control, which is so critical to assure security and business continuity. The typical way forward would essentially be building redundant systems, investing in disaster recovery, developing change management policies, all out of a desire to create a strong system which aims at protecting network and data. Our approach is built on four pillars – Unify, Orchestrate, Automate and Act. So essentially, what took hours, and even weeks before, is now done in seconds. This results in a more efficient time being spent to safeguard networks, and less on repetitive tasks and bookkeeping. Not to mention savings in training of employees, retaining them and better utilization of resources and not having to hire more.
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Storage Integrator of the Year | STME
Please elaborate on the growth outlook for the company across domains of focus? STME has achieved a 64% growth rate in 2014 compared with 2013. Aside from managed services, we will also continue to focus backup and recovery infrastructure, virtualization infrastructure, disaster recovery and data storage solutions, as well as consultancy and support staff services. We will also focus on promoting and strengthening our cloud and data security offerings across the Middle East and Africa region. Discuss STME’s focus on Managed services and demand for such services It has been estimated that the UAE will see an increased investment of close to AED356 Million in the Managed Services Industry by 2018. The managed services sector is growing aggressively worldwide and in the UAE we see an increased uptake of this business. For STME, our managed services division is being driven by growth sectors such as banking and finance, oil and gas, telecoms, and government services. Which have been the fast growth verticals for the company?
Thriving with storage focus Storage integration includes deploying scalable and resilient solutions that match the growing needs of the customer’s Business. STME, the winner of the category is a company that has a strong focus on storage systems, data availability, management, protection and recovery.Ayman Al Bayaa, CEO of STM who received the award on behalf of the company discusses the growth focus for the company Definitely cloud and data security services, as companies today are recognizing the costeffectiveness of offloading their IT operations to service providers, who have the skills, manpower and resources to oversee network management operations and other IT-related tasks. This way, companies do not have to invest in maintaining an in-
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house IT department or hiring technical staff. In storage, what have been some major defining trends and shifts? Interestingly, most other trends are related to the much larger industry trends of the shift from singular datacentre infrastructures to the cloud. This trend has been moving faster in many
Integrator Awards 2015
other areas than in storage, but storage is clearly in the crosshairs as people look to be able to deliver scalable, predictable capacity and performance in their virtual and cloud environments. In addition, flash has clearly had a huge impact on the storage space, as it offers ten times the performance of disk at a fraction of the cost. Is the datacenter segment a major focus for STME? Last year, we saw the continued transformation of enterprise IT infrastructure towards the next-generation
data center model. Fuelled by advances in computing, network and storage virtualization, we are definitely keen on continuing our focus on scalable infrastructure that can respond to clients’ needs, since storage plays as the foundation of the nextgeneration data center. Discuss some of the major vendor associations for STME such as the one with HDS? STME being the oldest System integrator has provided the most cutting edge technology solutions to help customers drive business growth and
Telecom Integrator of the Year
The category winner was Prologix, a company that is focusing on delivering solutions for different industry verticals and has a strong reach in the Telecom sector with a wide range of products suitable for the telecom segment.
also save costs. STME due to its quality of people and the trust of customers enjoys Platinum Partner relationships with major vendors such as HDS, NetApp and Symantec/ Veritas. Having these vendors in STME’s broad portfolio gives the customers the best of Enterprise, Medium and Small scale Storage, File, Content and DR solutions and also protects the data through Data Protection and Security solutions. STME also partnering with VMware helps customers with Virtualizing their environments and making the shift to the Cloud a reality.
Visionary VAD of the year
Aptec, an Ingram company, one of the leading distributors of Enterprise solutions in MEA region that offers partners a full range of support from pre sales consulting and help in design and configuration of solutions etc was the winner of the category. Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook | 29
Software Solutions Integrator of the Year | Finesse
Banking Education and healthcare seem to be your core areas of focus. Please elaborate. Apart from BFSI, Education and Healthcare; we have also smaller focus on Energy and Hospitality. Majority of our business comes from banking and finance areas. We work with most of the leading local international banks in our operating region; 7 out of 10 banks in the UAE are our clients. We have also made inroads into the Indian banking market by signing up with a leading Bank in India as our client. We have also launched our Banking Process Outsourcing business in the beginning of the year. What are the major areas in Banking application/solutions that you focus on? Our BFSI practice presents a wide range of solutions and services for Retail and Corporate Banking, Risk management, Payments, Chanel Management and Insurance. Our solutions portfolio include Core Banking System, Internet Banking, Private Banking / Wealth Management, Mobile Banking, Credit automation / Credit scoring, Retail Sales Automation, Customer Experience, Regulatory
Finesse, yet again the winner of the Software Solutions Integrator of the Year is a company that provides Technology Solutions and services to Banking, Education, Energy, Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail segments. Sunil Paul, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer at Finesse discusses the areas of focus for the company
The Application Experts reporting (IFRS), Basel II, Basel III, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Real time Financial Fraud Management, CoOperative Banking and Microfinance, Insurance and NESA Compliance Solutions. Our Banking Process Automation services include Cheque Clearing, Verification & Reconciliation, Financial Document Management, Post Dated Cheque Management, Invoice Factoring, Remittances, Settlements & Payments, Cash Management, Credit Analysis, KYC and FATCA Management and Credit Process Automation among others. Do you also have your own customized software products
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for different verticals? Is this something you will increasingly focus on? Finesse maintains a vibrant partner ecosystem with major banking solution vendors to ensure best-in-class solutions to our clients. Our solutions and services are backed by partnerships with leading technology vendors like IBM, MetricStream, Customer XPS, Fintellix, FIS, Qlik, Tagetik and EMC2. We also have created several customized regional specific business solutions on top of our partner products. What have been some milestones of 2014 for the company? Finesse has grown in the last
Integrator Awards 2015
5 years into a multi cultural environment with over 250 people representing 18+ nationalities. We now operate across 10 locations globally facilitating over 150 enterprise clients around the world. A ‘Red Herring Global Top 100 System Integration company’, we provide Technology Solutions and services to Banking, Education, Energy, Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail segments. Discuss the company’s focus on consultants? Finesse consultants possess excellent functional,
operational, and technical knowledge of the BFSI, Education, Healthcare, Hospitality and Energy domains and the leading products/solutions currently used by global organizations. This experience has proven valuable to our clients as our team identifies and
Security Integrator of the Year
The award category recognizes the SI who has a focused practice around providing a comprehensive suite of security solutions and services to customers across all verticals. eSolutionsNetcure, the winner is a company that offers Information Risk management Services.
implements industry best practices and leverages on real life experience to implement solutions that are proven and best suited to our clients. Finesse continuously invests in acquiring strong domain expertise and technical skill sets.
Emerging Integrator of the Year
The award goes to Think Software Services,a company that is an Information Technology Consulting Company specializing in Software /Applications within Intranet and Internet environments.
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Emerging VAD of the Year | EliteVAD
Discuss your partnership with cyber security and infrastructure networking technology vendors EliteVAD has built very strong partnerships in the region with top-notch cyber security & infrastructure networking vendors and this is one of the key factors for EliteVAD’s steady advancement towards becoming a “SuperVAD” for the region. EliteVAD continues to strengthen its breadth of technology portfolio through alliances with the best of its class vendors including FireEye, VSS, Algosec, Expert Team, Gigamon, Kaspersky, IP Guard, Fluke&ContentWatch. We are unceasingly working with them in developing their good faith while adding a local touch & flavor to the rich portfolio. Do you see this as a growth phase for the company where you have added many more vendors and expanded into more territories? Certainly, this is a fast growth phase for the company. We are quite happy of the fact that we already made profound advancement in our Vendor portfolio in comparison to the previous years and continue to expand. We are now capable of covering all areas of
On an ambitious trajectory ELITEVAD a distributor that is relatively young and is making strong inroads across the region with a strong focuses in the Information security space offering Security Solutions and Security Services was recognized as the Emerging VAD of the Year.George Ezzat, CEO of Elite VAD speaks with the Integrator Magazine about the company’s focus areas and solutions security technologies & security assurance solutions in addition to making market inroads in new regions throughout MEA. Which are the fast growth segments you have identified? The ever increasing adoption of multi-vector information arenas, which in-turn are reasons for newer vulnerabilities, has also has resulted in
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exponential growth of the security technologies & services segment. EliteVAD has witnessed that an enhanced awareness among organizations towards performance effectiveness with improved security intelligence have made Information security compliance and audit, network performance and cloud performance real-time fast growth segments.
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Integrator Awards 2015
Which have been the more impressive markets for you in the region? EliteVAD with its headquarters in Dubai, UAE already has strong operations in most of the GCC, MiddleEast and African countries through state of the art vendor portfolio, excellent channel partners, competent technology experts, strong sales, pre-sales & aftersales support and a robust customer portfolio. It is indeed a remarkable achievement that we have made strong inroads in Egypt, Jordan, Kenya,
Nigeria, Bahrain and UAE and are further expanding in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.We are ever witnessing an accelerated market growth in Middle East & Africa, in the sense these regions have become highly fertile the way security technologies are being applied and consumed by customers’ due to enhanced demand in IT Governance, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Remediation and Performance enhancement solutions. Discuss markets the
Enterprise After Sales Vendor of the Year
The Award recognises the efforts of an enterprise vendor to support and enable its partners. This Editor’s choice award goes to Barracuda Networks, a company that has enhanced its commitment to partners through a global program providing more tiers, rewards and product discounts. 34 | Integrator Awards 2015 - HandBook
company focuses on? EliteVAD has immense focus in most of the GCC, MiddleEast and African countries with customer bases in 37 plus countries. In every region that we operate, we have been successful in developing a strong market presence which wouldn’t have been possible without our extensive know-how of innovative technologies, core team expertise, regional market knowledge and empowerment of our Vendors, Resellers and Customers.
KVM Solutions VAD of the Year
This Award recognises the focus of a distributor in KVM connectivity solutions that are an integral part of a data center’s infrastructure. The winner of the category is Wave Tech, a distributor of networking products and with a strong portfolio of KVM connectivity solutions.
Visionary Integrator of the Year | F1 Infotech
Is F1 Infotech focused only on the hospitality segment? F1 Infotech is the only Hospitality focused enterprise company having end to end focus and delivery on the hospitality IT vertical. We do have three major divisions namely an Enterprise Software Division, an Enterprise IT Infrastructure Division and a Design & Consultation Division Discuss demand for IT solutions in region’s hospitality segment from entry level to premium? Technology drives the hospitality industry especially in enhancing customer experience and energy management. Technology therefore becomes a key differentiator as every hotel attempts to take advantage by providing maximum comfort to the guests. Starting from the Loyalty Programs which are managed efficiently by a superior Software or an excellent PMS which captures complete Guest history, guest profilesetc, these also include the Building Management System (BMS) interfacing with the PMS and a Room Management System that brings in excellent in room guest experience coupled along with WIFI, IPTV connectivity.
Vertical success The award recognizes the outstanding vision of F1 Infotech, a part of the Spectrum Group of Companies and an integrator focusing on the hospitality segment. Linu George, Busines Unit Head of F1 Infotech discusses the integrator’s specialist focus Are existing hotels upgrading their ICT infrastructure and solutions? Hotels are constantly involved in upgrading the ICT Infrastructure as technology matures with new platforms or new concepts. F1 operates in both existing hotels for upgrading ICT infrastructure and as well as new hotel projects. Do you cater to the sector across the region? For software, we do work across the region. For IoT and ELV, we are currently focused on the UAE market. Yes we do install, service and support
all type of ICT solutions across MEA & APAC. We have divisions with individual technical experts. Elaborate on the solutions you provide? F1 is uniquely positioned primarily because we provide consulting services on technology for developers, end to end software, ELV (extra low voltage) systems like building management systems, room management systems, access control and door locks, IP TV, internet access and control, wi-fi and wired networks
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Innovative IP Video Surveillance Solutions Vendor of the Year | Promise
Discuss the focus of the Pegasus range – which users segments do these products target? PROMISE Technology is the leading storage provider in the Rich media, Surveillance, General IT and Cloud and Data Center markets. The Pegasus2 product range is Thunderbolt 2 enabled hardware RAID storage and is tailor made for creative professionals in the video editing and broadcasting industry. This industry requires very fast throughput and with the 20Gb/s connection of Pegasus2, they have the fastest DAS connection available.This level of performance meets the demands of editors working with high-resolution files, such as 4K video. Elaborate on your NAS range focus with the Vess R2000 product line? The Vess R2000 Series is a cost-effective, high-availability NAS for SMBs. For SMBs, any service interruption can be devastating to their business. The Vess R2000 Series is a high-availability NAS with dual controllers in a single box which ensures uninterrupted service. Additionally, the new Vess R2600 PRO is a NAS for multiuser rich media compressed workflows using popular non-
Building on an innovation focus This award applauds the vision and solutions of a company with a strong focus in the fast growing domain. The award went to Promise Technology, a company that offers standalone surveillance solutions, hybrid surveillance solutions as well as cloud based surveillance solutions.Nadeem Azhar, Sales Manager, MENA at Promise Technology discusses the solutions on offer from Promise offers. linear editors such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Apple Final Cut Pro X. What are the solutions for IP surveillance that Promise offers? Our Vess A2000 Series are high performance NVR storage appliances for IP video surveillance which have been deployed around the world in demanding environments,
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such as banking, retail, gaming, manufacturing, and many more. Vess A2000 NVRs are designed to reduce support and equipment costs because there is no separate RAID storage unit to manage, eliminating the need for a server, controller cards, external cables, and a separate storage enclosure. Users can easily add capacity with PROMISE external
Integrator Awards 2015
storage, so the solutions can grow along with a user’s security needs. To simplify the management of the NVRs, PROMISE has worked closely with our partners in the surveillance ecosystem to build plug-ins for popular video management software and we offer a Surveillance Design Tool which greatly simplifies the process for security professionals who are planning on building a solution with PROMISE NVRs. Discuss your SAN storage – what is the demand you see
in the region? With a huge demand for SAN storage in the Middle East, PROMISE has a big opportunity to grow its market share in this region. PROMISE is a veteran in Fibre Channel SAN storage, most notably with our VTrak x30 Series which offers excellent performance and availability, and iSCSI SAN storage with the Vess R2000 series. The years of experience we have in SAN storage deployments enable us to offer reliable, stable and unique SAN solutions with features that cannot be met by the competition.
Enterprise Security VAD of the Year
Scope Middle East, the category winner is a company that has significant expertise in advanced network technology and security solutions and association with leading vendors.
Discuss your partnership with other vendors? We work closely together with all the major VMS vendors, such as Milestone, Axxonsoft, Genetec, Aimetis, Seetec& CamIQ. Our hardware is tested and certified by all major VMS vendors, and we test and certify their software. Not only is the software tested, but also our engineers are continuously working together to improve the integration between hardware and software - this delivers an optimized solution with proven compatibility and performance.
Fast Growing SMB brand of the Year
This is an Editor’s choice award and goes to Linksys, a Brand that has re-emerged in the SMB market with an extensive networkingrange of solutions and is making strong inroads.
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Integrator Awards 2015 | Snapshots
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